By David Feight, GSAC Board Member
Submit questions or feedback online 

If you live on Gulf Shore Blvd North between Harbour Drive and Park Shore Drive or were visiting Venetian Village the evening of March 31 you no doubt experienced the power outage that was caused by a catastrophic fire in an FPL vault near 3400 GSBN. The City Fire and Police departments were on the scene in minutes as was FPL.

Thanks to the quick response, power was restored to many of the buildings within several hours. However, the extent of the damage required complete replacement of all FPL equipment in the vault resulting in 8 buildings without power for almost 24 hours.

To show their appreciation for residents understanding and patience, FPL arranged for the Kona Ice truck to visit the buildings most affected. Parents, grandparents, grandkids and others all had a fun time enjoying this treat.

A few weeks later, on April 18, five FPL representatives led by Charlotte Miller, External Affairs manager for SW Florida, joined the GSAC board meeting as featured guest speakers. About 50 GSBN residents were in attendance to hear what FPL had to say about GSBN.

On balance FPL delivered good news.

Since the GSAC area of GSBN has underground service with 5 main power leads it is considered superior and more reliable to areas with above ground poles and is one of FPL’s better performing areas.

In addition, FPL has been working diligently since Ian on hardening the 62 “vaults” on GSBN using the latest technology which gives them the ability to diagnose service issues quickly, switch when needed, improve repair time and reduce power outages.

Asked by a resident about the outages we experience, FPL stated on average a typical customer across their entire customer base might experience 44 minutes without power during a year. GSBN they said, based on their records, experiences about 38 minutes. No outage is pleasant, but GSBN is ranked as one of the best performing FPL areas.

When asked about what a condominium building can do to protect and harden their electrical service FPL suggested that a highly qualified licensed electrician should inspect the condominium’s side of the system annually. In addition, condominiums should consider protecting the vaults from flooding and salt intrusion using guidance from FPL engineers.

Everyone left the board meeting with more confidence that FPL recognizes the importance of GSBN and is working to minimize impacts and outages from future storms.